OK I want to apply for a credit card next month(because by September, an inquiry from 8/2004 will have fallen off). It is a Citizens Bank Platinum MasterCard. I already have a history with Citizens Bank, because that's where I have my checking account. The card seems good, and I more than meet the FICO score criteria for getting approved, but there is a little problem.
A little while ago, I was paranoid/suspicious of someone trying to break into my checking account, so I had the account number changed to a new one. At the time that they did this, I asked them if this would create an inquiry on my credit report. They told me "no," it would only appear as a soft inquiry because I was NOT applying for new credit, but simply changing a number of an existing account. A week later, I checked my credit report and saw a hard inquiry from Citizens Bank. I was outraged, mostly because I've been trying so hard to limit my inquiries and wait for the numerous inquiries from summer 2004 to finally drop off. I called the branch office and explained this to the manager, and she told me that it was NOT reporting as a hard inquiry, but a soft one(soft ones do not get seen by creditors nor affect your credit score). I argued with her that it WAS reporting as a hard inquiry on my report, and that I had my credit report in my hand as proof, and finally the manager admitted that the hard inquiry was done by mistake. She wrote a letter for me to send to the credit bureaus, explaining that the hard inquiry should be removed because it was a mistake and that indeed I was NOT applying for new credit so it shoulda never been placed on my credit report in the first place.
I am in the process of disputing this "unauthorized inquiry" by sending a copy of the manager's letter to Equifax. Although I heard that successfully disputing inquiries is difficult and most bureaus will not let you dispute inquiries. I am worried now, because I want to apply for the Citizens Bank MasterCard but I am afraid that I will be turned down, simply because of this stupid inquiry that I never asked for. I do not want Citizens Bank to mistakenly think that the inquriy indicates that I already applied for the card with them before, or that I just recently got a new loan/line of credit(which I didn't). Will this inquiry(performed by the same bank that I'm applying for the credit card with) ruin my chances of getting approved for the card? Or, is it likely that Citizens Bank already noted in their records that the inquiry was mistaken and not indicative of any new credit apps? The last thing I want to do, is get yet another inquiry for applying for the card, then get turned down...that will further delay my ability to get a new credit card. These kinda credit mistakes always seem to happen to me. Gee if it weren't for me obsessively watching my credit like a hawk, it'd probably have like 100000 mistakes by now. So what do you think?


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